Head and Chair Professor of Department of Biology and Chemistry

Contact Information

Research Interests

Catalysis

Green Chemistry

Organometallic Chemistry

Fluorous Chemistry

In Situ IR and NMR Spectroscopy

Biomass Conversion

Management of R&D

István T. Horváth
received his Diploma in Chemical Engineering (1977)
and Ph.D. in Chemistry (1979), both at Veszprem
University (now University of Pannonia), Veszprem,
Hungary. He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at
Yale University (1982 - 1984), a Scientific
Co-worker at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland (1984 - 1987),
and a Senior Staff Chemist at Exxon (now ExxonMobil)
Corporate Research, Annandale, New Jersey
(1987-1998). After spending almost 10 years at the
Institute of Chemistry, Eötvös University, Budapest,
Hungary as a Professor, he moved to City University
of Hong Kong in May, 2009.

His research interests
center on green chemistry with an emphasis on
homogeneous transition metal catalysis,
organometallic chemistry, and in situ spectroscopy.
His current research focuses on the sustainable
conversion of biomass to chemicals and fuels
including gamma-valerolactone and the development of
sustainable fluorous chemistry. He has published
over 150 scientific papers, book chapters and
patents and gave more than 125 invited lectures at
conferences and workshops, and close to 200 seminars
across the World. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the
"Encyclopedia of Catalysis" (Wiley, 2002), Editor of
“Fluorous Chemistry” (Springer, 2012), and a
Co-Editor of Aqueous Organometallic Chemistry and
Catalysis (Kluwer, 1995), Handbook of Fluorous
Chemistry (Wiley-VCH, 2004), and Multiphase
Homogeneous Catalysis (Wiley-VCH, 2005). The books
on fluorous chemistry were based on the fluorous
biphasic concept he invented in the early nineties.
He was the Chairman of the COST Action D29 on
Sustainable/Green Chemistry and Chemical Technology
(2002-2007). He was awarded a D.Sc. in Chemistry by
the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1998 and was a
Szechenyi Professor Scholar (2000 - 2003). He
received the 1st Fluorous Technology Award in 2005,
the Senior Humboldt Research Award in 2006, and the
Green Chemistry Lecture Award of the in 2008. He was
a Foundation for Inorganic Chemistry visitor and
lecturer at The University of Sydney, Australia in
2009. He is Honorary Member of the National Academy
of Sciences Literature and Arts of Modena, Italy,
since 2010.

He has been admitted as a
Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry in
2013. He has been selected as a Fellow of the
American Chemical Society in 2014.